1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus having a curved transporting path.
2. Related Art
A paper transporting device having a transporting path made up of a curved paper guide panel and including a resilient film fixed to the paper guide panel is known. The paper transporting device may restrain generation of a noise caused by springback of a trailing end of a paper when the paper passes through the curved transporting path. A center portion of a downstream end with respect to the transport direction of the paper guide panel is formed to be depressed upstream with respect to the transport direction, and a downstream end with respect to the transport direction of the resilient film totally projects from the downstream end with respect to the transport direction of the paper guide panel.
In this technology, even when the trailing end of the paper guided by the paper guide panel in a state of being curved pops out from the downstream end with respect to the transport direction of the paper guide panel and tries to spring back energetically therefrom, the noise caused by the springback of the trailing end may be restrained by holding down the energy by a cushioning effect of the resilient film.
In recent years, the degree of the curve of the transporting path is increasing in associating with downsizing of the image forming apparatus. When feeding a leading end of the paper to a specific point (for example, a nip position between a pair of rollers) in such the curved transporting path, if the paper is relatively rigid, the resilient film projecting from the downstream end of the paper guide panel is deflected by being pressed by the leading or trailing end of the paper, and hence feeding the leading end of the paper to the specific point may be failed. Such the problem may occur in the same manner in the technology which needs to guide the paper not only to the nip position of the pair of rollers, but also to a nip position of a feeder such as a belt unit.